Newport Pilot Killed in Crash : Aviation: The man’s 17-year-old son, thought to be the only passenger, was still missing when the Coast Guard suspended its search Tuesday night.

A Newport Beach pilot died and his 17-year-old son was missing after a private plane crash in the ocean off Camp Pendleton on Monday evening, authorities said Tuesday.

A Coast Guard rescue team recovered little of the twin-engine Piper Navajo PA-31 after it slammed into the Pacific Ocean and exploded about three miles west of the Marine base in northwestern San Diego County.

Tim Walter Eksted Sr., 45, a charter boat operator and father of two teen-age boys, was identified from remains recovered from the water, the San Diego County medical examiner’s office said.

The pilot’s 17-year-old son, Tim Eksted Jr., was reportedly the sole passenger, officials said. Divers on Tuesday could not locate any trace of the younger Eksted nor more pieces of the destroyed plane, flight officials said.

Officials declined to speculate on the younger man’s fate.

An investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday it was unclear what may have led to the crash.

“The only thing that we know is that it hit the water,” said Richard Childress, an NTSB investigator based in Gardena. “Right now, we’re really at the piecing-together stage,” he said.

Childress’ job of trying to reconstruct what happened was complicated because few pieces of the plane were recovered. Divers contracted by the transportation safety board tried to locate engine parts or other components that might help investigators learn what happened, Childress said.

He said he hoped divers would be able to remove the plane this week from the ocean water. The Coast Guard said the plane may be in 50 feet of water.

The NTSB began compiling maintenance records for the aircraft, built in 1968, as part of their investigation, Childress said. The plane reportedly was kept in good condition, Eksted’s wife, Kathy, told investigators. In addition, Kathy Eksted said her husband was a licensed pilot for 15 years.

Eksted and his son planned to fly north to John Wayne Airport in Orange County, Childress and family friends said. Although no flight plan was filed, the senior Eksted had covered the route before and often went along the coast and over the San Juan Capistrano area, said investigators and family friends.

Kathy Eksted, who was in northern San Diego County visiting family members, saw her husband take off in clear weather about 3 p.m. Monday from McClellan-Palomar Airport, an airfield south of Oceanside, according to investigators.

About 3:30 p.m., the pilot of a Camp Pendleton-based Marine helicopter, flying over the Pacific Ocean on exercises, reported an explosion in calm waters about three miles west of White Beach, which runs along the southwestern corner of Camp Pendleton. A Coast Guard helicopter and cutter were sent to the area and began searching.

Coast Guard searchers recovered remains of the pilot, a wallet, checkbook and small pieces of the plane, said Coast Guard Petty Officer William Atkinson, a spokesman based in Long Beach.

The Coast Guard suspended its search Tuesday.

For the past three years, Eksted gave several hundred foster children in Orange County free rides in Newport Harbor aboard his charter yacht, said Donald I. MacAllister, president and founder of Sunshine for Children Foundation in Laguna Hills. Eksted’s last charter, on Sunday, was with the foster children, MacAllister said.

Eksted lived with his 17-year-old son and wife, Kathy, on the boat he used for the charter business, said Vicki Burnham, a family friend who worked with the senior Eksted at his Newport Beach-based business, California Yacht Charters.

Andrew Eksted, 14, is the charter boat operator’s younger son and lives in San Diego with his mother, according to family friends.

“Tim was a stickler for checking everything, so I’m wondering what went wrong,” Burnham said. “His car, his boat, his plane--everything always worked, he checked everything,” she said.